welding aluminum with a mig welder ?

[edd1.0]

its not car related but i thought here is the best place to ask

my dad has a aluminum chair which he needs welding

its just a simple garden chair

is it possible to weld with a gasless mig ?

if it is any tips as im new to welding and only welded thick steel

thanks

[dewismotorsport]

Tbh I think you'll really struggle as it will be really thin and you'll burn straight through unless you TIG weld it

[dearing5]

i tried welding ali with my mig an it didn't work lol.

[chip]

You are trying with ali wire I take it?
As obviously normal mild wire wont work.

I'd use gas though not gasless, but thats true of mild as well TBH
As Dewis says, its far from ideal

[Frisco]

There is nothing at all wrong with mig for ally its just harder to do. Ideally you would want a wire feed torch and a power pedal but its doable without them

[dewismotorsport]

To do it properly you need a different liner, tip, nozzle, rollers, gas and you'll need to set the machine up to spray instead of dip, the material needs to be 100% clean and depending on thickness needs to be pre heated

[Frisco]

With a wire feed torch (Spool gun) you do away with the liner completely and dont use the machines rollers either. You will need the same gas no matter what type of plant your using. The pedal gives you the ability to adjust the amps while welding which is a massive help with ally
Most people wont be able to do it but there is nothing lass than ideal about a mig plant if its setup properly

[dewismotorsport]

The outlay cost of buying a spool gun and foot pedal would be greater than liners etc, I found using different gases other than argoshield to be beneficial

[Frisco]

Yeah but the spool gun gives a much better feed espicially if you have a 3-4m torch. He is not going to do it with a hobby plant but all im saying is that there is nothing wrong with using a mig on ally

Anyway for the OP. Id suggest silver solder or even that duraweld stuff (which surprisingly isn't terrible if you can keep the heat localised ish)

[gsi13]

what kind of set up have you got and i will be able to tell you if it is doable with what you have available.

[twistycavgsi]

ive welded for 5 years and never used a mig for welding aluminum,not saying it's not possible but;

to do it proper and neat, you need to "tig weld" which is a art in its-self.

tbh if your struggling(time money effort) why not ask a company to do it for you.

better still find a freind of a friend to do it on his break time for dinner money

[Frisco]

to do it proper and neat, you need to "tig weld" which is a art in its-self.

Is this proper and neat?

[DarrenH]

so bare minimum he would need gas conversion (pure argon) allu consumables (wire, tip)

not to sound insulting, but i've also read that allu needs allot more heat to weld it (which makes sense due to the conductivity) gasless welders tend to be bottom end hobby kit with low max amps, so... little bit up against it.

[Frisco]

Silver solder would be just as strong and probably stronger than the ally in the chair. The flux and rods for that are cheap and its piss easy to do

[twistycavgsi]

Is this proper and neat?

yes mate, im not stating you cant use a mig!
but tig welding is the correct way and slightly easier way to do it imo..........

i mean for what it is(a chair leg) id just pop it to a local company and ask one of the lads to put a run of weld on it if he is struggling.

surly there's someone local(on here possibly?) who could sort it out for him?

[8valve-craig]

I say try it..... I migged this wheel which would have been scrap.

Maximum power and maximum wire speed. No gas! ally wire. and heated the area with a blow torch first

Picture one is what it was like before welding. (just a few squirt's at the bottom to set welder up)



Ran about a 12" bead around the edge then filed it down

[dewismotorsport]

People need to stay on track here, the guy wants to weld a CHAIR LEG nothing more nothing less chances are it's thin crap grade aluminium and not nice and thick that you can lay a bead of alloy mig on, I weld up to 25mm thick aluminium armour at work but he's not wanting to know about that. I suggest you nip in to your local welders and bung him some beer tokens else you could do more damage melting it trying to do it yourself and be out of pocket after you've bought all of the above

[twistycavgsi]

Exactly ^ ^ ^

[edd1.0]

thanks for taking time to reply im not going to try it as ive only welded a few times and dont wanna damage the chair

[Gordo]

Depending on the location of the break, I'd probably use an insert and apoxy to glue it together.